~ A collection of case studies, tools, knowledge, experiences, and research outputs by Jose Falck-Zepeda, colleagues at IFPRI and the Program for Biosafety Systems (PBS), and developing/developed country partners; on the socio-economic assessments of genetically modified organisms and other technologies. Photograph is of Bt/RR maize in Isabela province, Northern Luzon, Philippines; a country with over 500,000 hectares of Bt/RR maize.

Search:

Potential issues & methods for socio-economic assessments

It is important to point out that the issues, methods, and analysis are intricately interconnected. The issues will determine the methods, which will be limited by the way in which the assessment is conducted within the regulatory system. If the assessment is conducted before deliberate release (ex ante), there is no adoption to measure and thus no data to be collected on adopters. This will reduce the portfolio of methods that can be used for the socio-economic assessment.

If the assessment is done after deliberate release (ex post) then the issue becomes designing appropriate data collection approaches that explicitly consider avoiding sampling and statistical bias. Note that practitioners can and have used survey data collected on the current producers using existing technologies in order to project potential benefits and all available secondary data.

Differentiating between a baseline and a counterfactual is critical. A baseline is a state of nature measured before the intervention by which to compare the state of nature after the intervention. A counterfactual is that state of nature that would have happened without the intervention. In social and economic analysis, we do not have the luxury of controlled experiments–though significant progress has been made in quasi-experimental approaches such as difference in difference approaches—by which to isolate the treatment from other confounding factors.

Most economists prefer using a counterfactual because of the limiting nature of social and economic baselines; other external factors may have also taken a role in explaining the observed state of nature with the intervention. Usually, the issue is then selecting or constructing a counterfactual as it is not observed in practice.

Here is a very partial list of methods that have been used for economic-based studies. In a separate post, I will provide a partial list of methods that have/could be used for broader social, anthropological, cultural, and ethical assessments.

About the main author

My name is Jose Falck-Zepeda. I am a Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Any opinions herein are those of the author(s) posting in this blog and do not necessarily reflect the policies or opinions of IFPRI, its partners, or collaborators. My email if you need to contact me is j.falck-zepeda@cgiar.org.

Sign up for Updates!

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

September 26, 2017 IFPRI Blog Katarlah Taylor WFP report launch: As world food assistance grows, how to deliver it effectively? The World Food Programme's aid spending has more than doubled since 2009. Participants at an IFPRI event discuss what that means for the future of food assistance.

September 21, 2017 IFPRI Blog Katrina Kosec Jordan Kyle IFPRI Research Day: What to do when markets and governments fail poor people At the IFPRI staff retreat, Shanta Devarajan of the World Bank explains how well-intentioned fixes for market failures too often result in government failures.